Congratulations to our Captains of the Week: Waylan Sanderson and Taylor Milko

DECEMBER 23: Winter Break Begins

JANUARY 6, 2025: Classes resume

JANUARY 20, 2025: MLK, Jr Day. No classes

JANUARY 22-24, 2025: Semester 1 exams

JANUARY 27, 2025: Semester 2 begins

FEBRUARY 14-17, 2025: Mid-Winter Break

MARCH 24-28, 2025: Spring Break

MAY 9, 2025: Senior Prom (Boulder Point Golf Club, 6-10 pm)

JUNE 1, 2025: Graduation

JUNE 9-11, 2025: Final Exams

Additional dates will be added throughout the year

As my time in education comes to a close, I want to take the opportunity to express my deepest gratitude to the Waterford community. I am so thankful to have spent my entire career in Waterford, serving first Crary, then Mason, Pierce, Mott and Kettering. Each building has offered a unique experience to grow as an educator. I feel like I couldn’t have landed in a better place when I started my career. It has been a true honor and a privilege to serve the students, staff and families of this district.

-- Mrs. Taylor

Hello Captain Students and Families! It has been a great first week as your new assistant principal. I’ve enjoyed getting to know both students and staff and I look forward to meeting more families in our community. I started my career in education in Baltimore, Maryland as a Spanish teacher in a high school in 2006. We moved to Michigan in 2017 and I switched to K-8th grade schools in various roles around Oakland County. I am so excited to make my way back to high school and it’s a bonus for me to be in a district that I wanted to be in. Please feel free to reach out with any questions or concerns at KosloR01@wsdmi.org and say hi when you’re in the building. Have a great winter vacation!

On Friday, November 22, 2024, Marisa Black, Dana Camplin, Rebekah Catanzaro, Alex Helzer, Arianna Henry, Natalie Kuchciak, Mateo Santiago, and Katiera Uicker (members of the Kettering Chamber Orchestra) had the opportunity to participate in the Instrumental Music Workshop at Central Michigan University. The morning session were with the professors that specialized in their instrument, Dr. Souza (violin), Dr. Valoti, (viola), Dr. Fiste (cello). In the afternoon, the Kettering orchestra member worked on music with the string players form the CMU Symphony Orchestra and their conductor, Dr. Dodson. The workshop ended with a concert featuring the CMU Wind Ensemble and Symphony Orchestra.

Congratulations to the cast and crew of Radium Girls. These students are so incredibly talented and put on a phenomenal performance every night! Thank you for all your time, hard work, and dedication to our kids. We appreciate all you do and we are excited for Shrek!

Student artwork will be on display at Oakland Schools for the months of November and December. To view the work in person, visit Oakland Schools at 2111 Pontiac Lake Rd, Waterford Twp, MI 48328

Winter will soon be upon us. We've already had our first snow of the season. Please help ensure your student is prepared for the day's weather.

Kettering does not provide inclement weather after-school supervision. Only students under the direct supervision of a coach, club leader or scheduled tutor are permitted to remain in the building after 2:40 pm (or 1:40 on Thursdays). Unsupervised students will be asked to exit the building after 2:40 (1:40).

If your family has not yet arranged for District-provided transportation, and is eligible to do so, please contact: 248.674.2692

If you are transporting your student to or from school, please use the loop in front of the Main Office.

Passenger vehicles are prohibited from drop off/pick-ups at the Bus Doors

Doors open at 7 am.

***Please do not park in loop to block traffic. This is a no parking zone***

Those arriving early and choosing to remain in vehicles should wait in Student Lot until dropping off.

Please help keep our parking lot safe, by dropping off and picking up students at the curb.

If you or your student have questions about test affordability or the registration process, please have your student check in with Mr. Hembree or Mrs. Lane in the Counseling Office.

Please help WKHS be a good community partner and neighbor.

During the morning commute, Bender Ave will be open only for WSD buses. Parents and students using Bender impact traffic flow and may run the risk of being ticketed.

Traffic enforcement will be on site during the morning and afternoon commute to provide support.

Here’s our counseling corner link for this week:

Our counseling update for seniors

https://apply.oakland.edu/register/?id=a9214b48-cfb8-457f-b1fa-7b1e4c7e7378

FAFSA Workshop for Students and Parent/Guardians - 1/27/24 from 6-7pm in the LGI. Register using the link above

FAFSA IS NOW OPEN! The 2025–26 FAFSA® form is now available for all students and contributors. Complete the form to apply for financial aid for college, career school, or graduate school.

See link below

The Kettering team is excited to announce our partnership with Oakland 80 -- a community partnership with Oakland County, designed to increase collage and post graduate opportunities for our students.

During the 2024-25 school year and beyond, this partnership will provide personalized supports and assistance for our seniors.

Kettering's in-house Oakland 80 Navigator is Chris Meller, who previously connected with Kettering, Mott and Durant students as an official with Oakland Community College.

"Hello my name is Chris Meller and I’m the new Oakland 80 Career and Education Navigator here at Waterford Kettering. I live in Fraser, MI with my wife, two children and our dog Pepper.

I’m here to help the students with their career and education options after high school. I will provide FAFSA assistance as well as helping them apply for college and scholarship opportunities.

Here is my contact information.

cmeller@oakland80.org

https://calendly.com/cmeller-oakland80/30min

Students can also use the counseling Google form to schedule an appointment"

Student Portal link: https://mistar.oakland.k12.mi.us/waterford/studentportal/

Waterford Kettering is an incredible place and it is an honor to serve as your principal.

Every year, our team seeks ways to better support our students and community.

During the summer of 2023, our leadership team and staff delved into peer-reviewed research, and followed the data to create a cell phone policy that improved student engagement, increased student achievement and helped make our building safer. Throughout the year, our students and staff told us the policy made a difference.

Upon review of the data, they were right. Our learning metrics improved, student engagement was up and distractions were reduced.

We look forward to continuing last year’s successful approach.

As we begin the 2024-25 school year, students will again be directed house their phones in the hanging holders in each classroom. This will be a school-wide expectation, for all classrooms. This will allow students to avoid the distraction of push alerts, social media, group texts and other non-academic uses of their device.

Headphones will continue to be prohibited from classrooms.

Students who use their phones for glucose readers or other documented medical needs are exempt from this policy. Parents are asked to include this information in their Plan of Care documents.

Students will continue to have the privilege to use their personal devices at lunch, passing time and in the building, during early morning and after-school hours.

All classrooms remain equipped with teacher telephones. In addition, student phones will be only feet away in case of emergencies. In the event parents need to get a message to their student, please reach our main office at 248-673-1261.

This summer, our staff and leadership focused on ways to improve student attendance. In June, we surveyed our students to learn more about the factors impacting their ability to attend class on time. We also reviewed attendance and communication data on MiSTAR. The data was revealing. In the interest of transparency, we’ve shared a summary of our findings in a downloadable PDF, below this article.

Here’s what we learned:

· We had nearly 28,000 documented individual student tardies during the 2023-24 school year.

· Students arrived late to first period 11,321 times

· Nearly 85% of students reported arriving to class late at least once

· Only 6% of students reported they felt class began at the bell

· If each documented tardy averaged just one minute, the total amount of time lost amounts to 466 hours. In a seven-period building, that is nearly 67 school days of lost instruction.

So here’s what we’re doing about it:

1. PRIORITIZING BELL TO BELL INSTRUCTION: Our leadership team, Teacher Leaders, and WKHS instructional staff are committing to make the first few minutes of class time essential learning.

2. IMPROVED PARENT COMMUNICATION: If your student is having trouble making it to class on time, we will partner with you to make a positive improvement in your student’s attendance. Communication will be proactive and collaborative.

3. RECOGNITION AND INCENTIVIZING POSITIVE BEHAVIORS: In addition to our existing Captain of Week program, we have identified new avenues to celebrate and reward our students who do the right thing. All students with strong attendance and a grade of 85% or higher in their course will be exempt from taking their final exam. They are welcome to still challenge themselves with the test, but scores will not be used against a student who qualifies for an exemption. In addition, we will be partnering with the Athletics Department to identify ways to reward our reliably prompt students with freebies, giveaways and special privileges.

4. STRUCTURED SUPPORTS FOR HABITUALLY TARDY STUDENTS: Students who choose to continue to arrive late to class will be held accountable. Academics will always remain a priority, so our structured supports will focus on identifying privileges that may interfere with the student’s ability to arrive to class on time. As a result, chronically late students may lose non-academic privileges, including, but not limited to, parking passes, cell phone possession privileges, the ability to attend school events, field trips and dances.

We have gifted teachers and incredible students, but the data told us our attendance and early class period engagement have room for growth. We look forward to sharing additional information on how this process will work in the coming weeks.

Our team is confident this focused approach will lead to positive outcomes for all students.

I look forward to continuing this conversation throughout the year and welcome your feedback.

Let’s have a fantastic year!

Ben Harwood

WKHS Principal

248-673-1326 (office)

248-309-1160 (cell)

harwob01@wsdmi.org

Questions about truancy and attendance? Click here

For information about first year class size, GPA, cost and other details, download the PDF above

To help ensure student safety on the WKHS campus, food deliveries for students are not permitted. This includes orders placed by family members off campus for students in session.

To help limit interruptions to learning, we will not be permitting late-arriving students to bring food and/or drinks into the classroom. Students arriving late to campus must consume food / drinks prior to entering the building.

As a friendly reminder, students are *not* permitted to leave the building to access their car and return, regardless of reason. To be clear, this direction is not in response to any threat but is a proactive measure we are taking to improve the safety of staff and students.

This includes but is not limited to the following:

• Retrieving classwork

• Retrieving food / personal care / personal item

• Assisting in a club activity

• Assisting in a class activity

• Escorted or requested escorted assistance to a student’s car

• Asking a staff member to retrieve an item(s) for a student

Kettering Orchestra Boosters is excited to announce that we are now enrolled in the Kroger Community Rewards Program! By simply purchasing your everyday groceries you can support the Orchestra program. Sign up two ways, online or on the app. To sign up through the Kroger webpage, once logged into your Account, select Community Rewards, then search for Kettering Orchestra Boosters. Or sign up through the Kroger app, by clicking on the 3 bars in upper right side, select Rewards, then search Kettering Orchestra Boosters. The rewards earned will help KOB to replace formal wear, purchase music, bring experienced clinicians into the classroom and more. Thank you for supporting the Kettering Orchestra program.

As always, please reach out to wk.orchestras@gmail.com with any questions or suggestions.

We are excited to announce some additions to our athletic department.

First and foremost, please welcome- Shane Hynes- Assistant Athletic Director at Pierce and Kettering and Collin McGran- Assistant Athletic Director at Mason and Mott.

In addition, we have moved to a new athlete registration and paperwork process. We will now be using FINAL FORMS, which is an online database that will collect all of the paper forms from the past. Linked below you will find the parent playbook that gives you a step by step process of how to enroll and use FINAL FORMS. This includes all of our usual forms: Code of Conduct, Transportation, and Concussion. This also includes information that will provide us emergency contact information for each athlete. You will upload the MHSAA Physical right to the site as well from your phone or a computer. I went through the step by step process enrolling my child, and it is very user friendly. We no longer will be accepting paper forms. Please read through the information linked below.

This year for admissions, we will still be accepting cash at all Waterford games, but also using GOFAN. GOFAN gives our spectators they ability to pre-purchase game tickets, but also purchase with a credit card or apple pay on site. Ticket prices have increased to $7 per person at most venues in the area, including all LVC sites. Please note that some venues will not accept cash, we will try and notify families of this in advance. Family passes can be purchased on GOFAN as well. Family passes are $175 for 6 people, and are good for ALL Mott and Kettering regular season home games. Family passes are available now. To purchase a family pass, visit gofan.co and type in Mott or Kettering.

Please take a look at the link and attachment, and contact the athletic offices with any questions. We are looking forward to another great year in athletics!

Allison Sartorius
Waterford School District
District Athletic Director

Parent Playbook for FINAL FORMS: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kHAVEpukweUeW3UGXwl-zJkbLI0Wwq6l/view?usp=sharing

We are partnering with the WKHS athletic department to recognize the work ethic of on-time students. We look forward to sharing information on this new initiative soon!

Attendance Office: 248-673-6440 | Main Office: 248-673-1261

Principal’s office: 248-673-1326 | Counseling Office: 248-673-1264

Athletics: 248-674-0113 | Mr. Harwood's Cell Phone: 248-309-1160